METALLIC MESSIAH

It all happened at the Personal
Computer World Show. It almost happened at the Newsfield stand, where Mr
Urquart downed a few cans of the complimentary lager we had in store for chums.
But happen it did. Somewhere, at the PCW Show, on the Saturday, an agreement
was signed between Mike Baxter (a Big Cheese at Solutions PR), Christian
Urquart and Mike Smith (programmers).

Thus was a new software company by the name
of Alphabatim born. Christian, Mike and and Mike came to Ludlow the
other day, to show us how work was progressing on Robot Messiah. This is
what we saw...

By the time you read this, what with the delay involved in
typesetting and printing, Alphabatim’s first game should be on the streets.
When we saw Robot Messiah most of the screens had been committed to
Spectrum memory and Microdrive cartridge, the animation sequence for the main
character had been finished and the game designed
— but the finished game was still a couple of weeks away.

Robot Messiah is an arcade adventure which stars a worker robot by
the name of Sid. Sid’s mission in life is to save the downtrodden worker robot
race on an android-run planet from an eternity of slavery.

Eons ago, the planet was visited by humans who designed and built a robot
mining operation. Androids — with human traits such as ambition, determination
and greed — were put in charge of the worker robots which actually did the
mining. The humans left — and never came back. But the worker robots continue
to labour in the catacombs, driven on mercilessly by the android race of
robots, forced to continue mining the rare minerals contained in the planet’s
crust. The androids merely pile up these minerals on the planet’s surface,
using them for decorative purposes.

Conditions in the mines are horrific. The worker robots live and toil in an
environment full of acidic dust which attacks their circuits and bodyshells,
corroding and damaging them beyond repair. Driven on by unpleasant gnome
creatures, worker robots do not survive very long in the mines. They slow down
progressively, finally crumbling into dust which is trodden underfoot by their
replacements, sent in by the androids.

A classic case of slavery. This state of affairs could have continued for
eternity, but one android, amongst all the rest, was different — Socrates.
Socrates believed that all robots, worker and android, were built equal and
said so. This did not go down well with the other androids, who saw revolution
on the horizon... so they punished Socrates by reprogramming him and sending
him to the mines as a worker robot. So that he should suffer, it seems they
only reprogrammed him partially — leaving elements of his original persona
intact.

For many years Socrates labours in the mines, and gradually his dream of
liberating the workers from their pointless labours fades. The acid dust takes
its toll on his components. He is on the point of giving in, and allowing his
lifeforce to ebb. Then news of Sid, a worker robot who speaks of overthrowing
the androids and preaches rebellion reaches the expiring Socrates. Forcing his
circuits to remain active, Socrates finds Sid and tells him that beyond the
mines a greater hell can be found — a maze of tunnels and caves which contains
a sinister test centre. Scattered around this complex are three fragments of
program which, if collected and assembled together, could be used to reprogram
a worker robot and convert him to an android.

The ailing Socrates convinces Sid that salvation for the worker robots is
attainable. Socrates finally allows himself to cease to be, once he has passed
on the secret of the fragmented program, and starts to crumble into dust. Sid,
however, sets out on his quest... to find the elements of the program that will
allow him to become an android and save the slaves. He is to be the Robot
Messiah.

You control the Saviour of the Robot Race in the game — who is a strange
looking figure. At first glance Sid looks rather like a cross between a
Woodentop and a Flowerpot Man! That’s not being rude... he just moves in a
rather odd way. When he jumps, instead of the more usual sproing from a
standing start seen in jumping games, Sid sort of coils himself up, bending
down, leaning his chest forwards and swinging his arms behind his back before
unwinding like a spring and leaping. It’s really quite a neat bit of animation
— very endearing.

As in most multi-screen arcade adventures, the rooms are full of rampaging
nasties which Sid will have to shoot or avoid. And there are puzzles to solve
and articles to collect on the way to finding the three program segments which
will spell ultimate liberation for the workers.

Shuffling through his box of Microdrive cartridges, Christian loaded screen
after screen into the Spectrum. “Look at that palm tree”, Mr Smith chipped in,
“isn’t it great? We were wondering if we could put a coconut in there, so it
could fall on Sid’s head...” Pointing out the yellow slave robots, mentioning
the range of objects that would be lying round in the caverns, Mr Urquart
explained how the blue gnome in the game was going to be ‘fairly intelligent’
and hunt Sid down. All the while, Sid stumped round the few locations that were
ready for him, and sproinged across gaps in the floor and leaped onto
platform.

A very good looking game indeed, this one. This year, there could be another
Christmas hit programmed by Christian Urquart... a bit different from the last
one, Daley Thompson’s Decathlon. We’ll be reviewing the full game next
issue. Promise.